Tag: spirits

Filtration in Spirits: A Primer

For CLASS Magazine online at DiffordsGuide.com, I wrote an article about filtration in spirits. This was based on the research I did for my talk on the subject at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic earlier this year.

Don't Forget the Filtration Factor
By Camper English

Nearly every spirit undergoes some sort of filtration, yet we rarely acknowledge it as part of production. But filtration makes vodka what it is today, practically defines Tennessee whiskey, is the standard in making white rum, and is changing the look of tequila. Filtration is important.

Generally speaking, filtration refers to the mechanical process of passing a liquid or gas through a medium that keeps out solids of a certain size. But in spirits, we include carbon filtration (sometimes called carbon treatment) as filtration too. Carbon filtration works differently: by absorption, the adhesion of particles to a surface, like flypaper.

I researched filtration in spirits for a talk at this year's Manhattan Cocktail Classic. While I can't claim category-wide or hands-on expertise in this matter, I spoke with several industry sources who know their stuff. Consider this an introduction to the subject.

The article covers filtration in vodka, rum, tequila, whisk(e)y, and cognac. I hope you'll find it interesting. Get the full story here.

Update: The story came off the site, so here it is in its entirety:

Filtration in Spirits

Camper English

Nearly every spirit undergoes some sort of filtration, yet we rarely acknowledge it as part of production. But filtration makes vodka what it is today, practically defines Tennessee whiskey, is the standard in making white rum, and is changing the look of tequila. Filtration is important.

Generally speaking, filtration refers to the mechanical process of passing a liquid or gas through a medium that keeps out solids of a certain size. (Think of a screen door.) But in spirits, we include carbon filtration (sometimes called carbon treatment) as filtration too. Carbon filtration works differently: By adsorption, the adhesion of particles to a surface. (Think of flypaper.)

I researched filtration in spirits for a talk at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic in May 2012. While I can’t claim category-wide or hands-on expertise in this matter, I spoke with several industry sources who know their stuff. Consider this an introduction to the subject.

Vodka, Charcoal, Tequila, and Rum

Early vodka was surely very different from the perfectly clear, nearly-neutral spirit we know today. True, distillation was cruder, performed in pot stills rather than in today’s hyper-efficient columns, but filtration helped rid vodka of lots of nastiness. Much early vodka filtration seems to resemble “fining” in wine and beer – a fining agent speeds up precipitation of impurities in the liquid. Fining agents have included egg whites, milk, gelatin, fish bladders, something called “blood powder.” Vodka has also been filtered through sand and other soils (this process is still used in water treatment), felt, and other materials.

But activated carbon (charcoal) seems to have the largest impact on vodka and other spirits, or at least it is the most commonly used filtration method. In vintage vodka, charcoal derived from trees was used to clean up the liquid, but today charcoal for filtration may come from wood, nut shells (coconut especially), and even bones. (Fun fact: some white table sugar is clarified using bone charcoal, rendering it non-vegetarian.)

Vodkas today advertise a range of other material to complement the carbon. These include birch charcoal, quartz sand, and algae (Ladoga), Herkimer Diamonds (Crystal Head), freeze filtration, Z-carbon filter, and silver (Stoli Elit), Platinum (Platinka), Gold (Lithuanian), Lava Rock (Hawaiian, Reyka), and marble (Akvinta). Though many of these methods sound like pure marketing, in fact some of these precious materials like platinum and silver do improve filtration efficiency. (For very detailed information on some vodka filtration technologies, this site https://www.vodka-tf.com/ is quite a read.)

Charcoal filtering is also commonly used in tequila. According to one tequila producer, this is because the law for tequila production (the NOM) specifies amounts of impurities like esters and furfural that may be present in tequila, and these numbers are difficult to consistency hit with distillation alone. Thus, charcoal filtration cleans up the impurities in tequila a little bit – but also removes some flavor with it.

Charcoal filtration can remove color as well as flavor and impurities. Many ‘white’ rums are aged a year or more in ex-bourbon barrels, and then filtered for clarity. Charcoal filtration (and other new-at-the-time technologies such as aging and column distillation) helped make Bacardi the popular and later global brand of rum that it is today. This lighter, clear style of rum born, in Cuba, is often called the ‘international style’ that won out in popularity over regional production methods.

All charcoal isn’t created the same, however. Should you take a dark rum and run it through a water filter repeatedly, you may not lose any color. (I tried.) Some parameters that distillers investigate in choosing the right carbon filtration material include the base material (bone, nut charcoal, wood, etc), the “iodine number” and the “molasses number,” the latter a measurement of decolorization. Activated carbon meant for cleaning up water may not be of any use in stripping color from liquids.

Decolorization has allowed for a new trend in tequila: aged tequila filtered to clarity. Probably the first tequila to do so was Maestro Dobel, a blend of reposado, anejo, and extra-anejo tequila filtered to near-clarity. In recent months, new brands have followed suit, including Casa Dragones (blanco and anejo mixed together and clarified), Milagro Unico (blanco with ‘aged reserves’), and Don Julio 70^th Anniversary Anejo Claro (clarified anejo). In the opposite direction, the first tequila that I’ve seen labeled as ‘unfiltered,’ a special cask-strength bottling of Ocho, has also just hit the market.

Whisky and Cognac

In both scotch and in bourbon, there is an increasing trend toward unfiltered whiskey, while chill filtration is still very much the norm. Chill filtration prevents cloudiness in spirits (particularly at low temperatures) and precipitation of particulates in the bottle. It is purely an aesthetic choice, not meant to affect the flavor of the spirit. However, many experts argue that it does alter (flatten) the flavor to some extent. (For a very nerdy analysis of chill filtration, we refer you to this information from Bruichladdich https://www.bruichladdich.com/library/bruichladdichs-guide-to-chill-filtration.)

As far as I have been able to learn, in chill filtration activated carbon is not used. The spirit is chilled to a certain degree, and then a cellulose or other paper filter is used to remove the esters and fatty acids that are less soluble at low temperatures. Whiskies bottled at higher proofs tend not to cloud, so many cask-strength whiskies and many (if not most) whiskies bottled at 46 percent alcohol or higher are non-chill filtered. Outside the bottle, however, when ice or water is added and they dilute, they may get cloudy.

Tennessee whiskey has its own style of filtration. After the spirit is distilled but before it goes into the barrel for aging, the whiskey is dripped through or soaked in tubs with about ten feet of charcoal made from sugar maple trees. Contrary to popular opinion, this is in no way required by law, but both Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel employ this technique. Gentlemen Jack is unusual in that it undergoes charcoal filtration a second time before bottling.

One cognac distiller revealed that filtration in cognac is also standard: cognac is run through paper filters of a specific (depending on the product) pore size to filter out undesired molecules. While most cognac is not chill-filtered, one producer said that when bottles are destined for cold-weather countries (cognac is popular in Scandinavia), it is often chill-filtered to prevent cloudiness in the bottle. It might be interesting to taste chill and non-chill filtered versions of the same cognac. The opportunity is rarely, if ever, afforded in scotch.

So, some form of filtration is used in about every type of spirit, whether that’s to change the color, clean up undesired impurities or clean out off flavors, to prevent cloudiness, or just to keep out chunks of stuff from floating in your bottle. As with the water used in fermentation, the type of still, and the location/condition of aging barrels, filtration is an important part of the process of making spirits and shouldn’t be so often overlooked.

August 14, 2012
Working With Beverage Bloggers: DOs and DON’Ts
The other day I gave a talk on social media at the WSWA convention in Orlando. The audience was mostly distributors, brand owners, and PR professionals.

We had five people on the panel and just an hour to to talk, so naturally I was the last one to speak and we were already over our allotted time in the room. I had to make it fast so I condensed a ten-minute talk into about three minutes, which is longer than it will take you to read the rough outline of my talk below.

Working With Cocktail Bloggers: DOs and DON'Ts

DON'Ts
1. Don't call, unless you are asked to call.
2. Don't send packages without your information or sell sheet. Mystery booze is nice but won't help you get press.
3. Don't treat every blogger the same. The National Enquirer isn’t the same as Cat Fancy; it's the same way with blogs. Different bloggers publish different sorts of content- one person may review your blueberry vodka, another may publish recipes with it, and another might write an industry trend piece about the rise in berry flavors. Familiarize yourself with the top blogs and pitch accordingly.
4. Don't think a blogger is obligated to write about your product just because you sent a sample or a recipe. Instead of following-up with “When will you be posting?” try: “I hope you enjoyed the sample. Is there anything I can provide you with?” (Also, bloggers aren't obliged to respond to emails- we're busy too.)
5. Don't block access to information. If a blogger has a question that only the master distiller can answer, do your best to get that answer. Be a conduit for information, not a roadblock.
DOs
1. Do create shareable content and shareable media, and give it away. Shareable content includes brand histories, tasting notes, distillery profile, and especially recipes. (And hire somebody to create good new recipes.) Shareable media includes photos (bottle shots, cocktail pictures, party shots from events, cell phone snaps from bar visits), videos (How-to-make cocktail videos, distillery virtual tour, live tasting with distiller), and projects (send out tools to help bloggers build their own content: a comparative tasting kit, home blending exercise, cocktail ingredients, bar tools, punch bowls, etc.)
2. Do Provide Incentives and Rewards. These include Samples: send large size ones and send them often. Someone reviewed your product positively? Send even more! Admission: to press events, parties, out for drinks with the brand ambassador, etc. Bloggers don't get as much love as traditional journalists, so a little bit of love goes a long way. Money: Some blogs charge for spirit reviews, recipe development, and of course ads, but you can also hire bloggers to cover events, to photograph cocktails, or to be the party photographer. Fame: If a blogger posts something about your brand, use your own social media tools to retweet, post on Facebook. etc. to drive traffic to the blog. The blogger gets more hits and the brand gets more attention. It's a win-win.
I focused on just my top tips. I welcome your additional suggestions in the comments.

To see the slides from all speakers for this presentation, follow this link. Mine are last.
April 14, 2011
Sherry, Reconsidered in the Los Angeles Times Magazine

**Update: This story is no longer on the LA Times Magazine website, so I have pasted it here.

In yesterday's LA Times Magazine I have a huge feature on sherry.

(photographs by Nigel Cox)

As a wine category, sherry has practically everything going for it: a tremendous range of flavors, a rich history dating at least as far back as the Romans, the ability to pair magnificently well with food and an increasingly hip status as a cocktail ingredient used by top bartenders.

Most people, when they think of sherry at all, consider it an ingredient their grandmothers cooked with rather than something ripe for sipping on its own. Sherry is about due for a comeback, but it’s so unfamiliar to us now that it really needs a thorough reintroduction.

The story features eight drink recipes from the lofty likes of Murray Stenson, Andrew Bohrer, Alex Day, Zahra Bates, Kenta Goto and Audrey Saunders, Brian Miller, Neyah White, and Kevin Deidrich.

Go read the story, and then go make the drinks!

(photographs by Nigel Cox)

February 7, 2011
All About Cognac

I went to Cognac last week to learn about cognac. I learned a lot.

So what is cognac, anyway?

Cognac is an aged brandy distilled from grapes in the Charente region of France.

The Cognac region is separated into six delimited subregions based primarily on the makeup of the soil: Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fine Bois, Bons Bois, and Bois Ordinaires. The Grande and Petite Champagne regions have the most chalky soil.

Planted in the region is mostly Ugni Blanc grapes, with others like Folle Blanche and Columbard sometimes also used to make cognac. These grape varieties make horrible table wine, but are good for distillation. They are high in acid and low in alcohol content at harvest. The flavors in this largely neutral grape are concentrated through distillation and are teased out over aging in oak barrels.

Grapes grown in the Grande and Petite Champagne region are able to age a long time, while those from the outer regions need less time in wood to show their full and fruity potential. Thus many brands reserve their Grande and Petite Champagne-produced barrels for their longer-aged blends.

First the grapes must be harvested in the fall, then fermented into wine and distilled. Most harvesting is mechanical. Fermentation is started with yeast recommended by the government. Distillation runs through the winter and must legally be finished by the end of March, though most are finished far sooner. Cognac must be twice distilled in pot stills limited in size to 25 hectoliters in usable volume.

Most cognac is aged in oak from the French Limousin or Troncais forests, and purchased from the government-run forest agency. Most of the trees used for barrels are 100 years old. French oak is high in tannins that help spirits age longer and add structure to the mouthfeel of the finished product.

The aging process is not as static as you might think. First, newly made spirit is added to newish (up to 3-5 years old) barrels as these contain the most tannins. Depending on the cognac house and the previous number of uses of the barrel, the spirit may sit in new barrels for just a couple months to more than a year. Then the spirit is moved to old barrels where the tannins in the wood have less effect, but the porousness of wood allows continued interaction with the outside world via oxidation and evaporation.

Most all cognac is a blend of aged spirit (eau de vie) from many vineyards and many different vintages. It is the master blender's job to ensure consistency of a blended cognac product despite a big variation in the individual eau de vies that go into it.

Cognac labeled VS must be a minimum of 2 years, VSOP has a 4 year minimum, and Napoleon and XO have a six year minimum though this is being raised to 10 years for XO in 2016 (most XO's on the market are already older than ten years and won't have to change). Cognacs may be single vintage bottlings (all eau de vie comes from a single year) and labeled on the bottle. They may not say an average or minimum age on the bottle (example: "ten years old") as they can with scotch whisky.

Older blends are not just further aged versions of younger blends- they are usually separate products. For example, a brand may compose their VS product primarily of eau de vie from the Fine Bois, while for their XO products most will come from Grande Champagne.

Cognac production is rather interesting, in that most cognac houses are only blending and aging houses. They do not traditionally own their own vineyards or their own distilleries, and they don't even need to own the aging facilities. (In reality the brands I visited owned some vineyards and distilleries but nothing close to the amount for their full production. It seems most all houses age most of their own eau de vie rather than buy it already aged.)

The "big four" cognac houses that make up around 75-80% of the world market are Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier, and Remy Martin. There are many smaller houses, of course, and some of these own vineyards and distill, age, and blend on-site.

In future blog posts, I'll talk about some brand specifics.

September 21, 2009